Talk:Westhoughton

Westhoughton is known locally as keaw yed city, a term meaning "Cow's head" in the dialect of Lancashire. The origin of this name is debated, and several explanations have been proffered. The most widely believed is a pastoral tale, describing the actions of a local farmer whose cow had accidentally lodged its head in a gate: considering the price of the gate and the comparative prices of a dead or living cow, the animal was decapitated, an action seen by inhabitants of surrounding villages as barbaric and lacking rationality or intelligence, despite the aforementioned reasoning. The term 'Keaw yed' was subsequently coined as a derogatory phrase describing a person of Westhoughton and their associated stupidity. In a more modern context, inhabitants of Westhoughton take a mixed reaction to the term; some see it still as a slanderous allusion to cerebral inferiority, whereas many have adopted the term as a point of pride and heritage. This opinion has become manifest in the town's symbol, the head of a cow. This is the most popular story, possibly because of a photograph existing depicting a scene at the farmer's gate.

The above story has been set in a humourous poem by the local folk group the Houghton Weavers. [1] The logic of the farmer is expressed in the couplet: "Do'st think I'm daft, and don't know my job, When t'gate cost five pound, and t'cow, fifteen bob?"

Another explanation derives from the practice of the inhabitants of Westhoughton challenging those of Daisy Hill, a small village nearby, for the dubious trophy of the head of the cow eaten at a festival: the victors, those of Westhoughton, were dubbed 'Keaw yeds' by the latter. Yet another manifests itself in the form of the 'Bone Club', who on Wakes Mondays carried the bones of a cows head adorned with regalia to various public houses. In the 1960's there was an abbatoir on the east of the town which was known locally as the 'bone works'.

Keaw Yed festival takes place in Westhoughton on the 24 August each year.

The head of a cow appears on several buildings and plaques around the town and most prominently on the clock tower of St Bartholomew's parish church of which there are four, each one facing in a different direction - the saint being the patron saint of butchers. There is actually a plaque above the market hall in Westhoughton to this.

Another term often used to describe somebody born in Westhoughton is "Howfener". In reference to the traditionally loud and vociferous nature of 'Howfeners' (probably derogatory, reminiscent of the Keaw Yed tale), it is said that "a true Westhoughtoner could whisper across field".